Study sites
Fluid inclusion microthermometry is applicable in tropical and sub-tropical settings, or past warm periods in mid latitudes, due to its physical limitation to cave temperatures above 8-10 °C (depending on fluid inclusion size).
Together with our international collaborators, we currently investigate speleothems from the following locations:
- Northern Borneo
- South Africa
- Mexico
- New Zealand
- Cook Island
- Brazil
We are eager to extend to other locations. Please contact us if you would like to try the method on your samples.
Speleothems as a climate archive
Speleothems, such as stalagmites, have been used for many decades to investigate past climate changes on land. They cover long time periods (up to several hundred thousand years), are largely protected from erosion, and can be accurately dated with U-Th chronology. In many caves, the temperature is very constant throughout the year and closely reflects the mean annual outside temperature. (This needs to be confirmed for each cave by temperature monitoring).
In the past, most speleothem studies have focused on reconstructing hydroclimate (rainfall) based on the oxygen isotopic composition of the calcite. However, other proxy methods become increasingly available providing information on past temperature, the ecosystem above the cave, etc. We contribute to these exciting developments by providing fluid inclusion microthermometry as a new tool for quantitative cave temperature reconstructions.